Allium vineale, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1980, Flora Europaea. Volume 5. Alismataceae to Orchidaceae (Monocotyledones), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 67

95. A. vineale L. , Sp. Pl. 299 (1753) .

Bulbs 1-2 cm, ovoid; outer tunics splitting into strips with parallel fibres; bulblets yellowish. Stem 30-120 cm. Leaves 2-4, 15-60 cm x 1 -5-4 mm, sub-cylindrical, fistular, sheathing the lower of the stem. Spathe usually 3 cm or more, 1 -valved, caducous, the beak as long as or a little longer than the base. Umbel 2-5 cm in diameter, subglobose, ovoid or hemispherical, many-flowered, and with few or no bulbils, or few-flowered and with several bulbils; pedicels 5-30 mm, unequal. Perianth campanulate; segments 2-4- 5 x 1 -2-1 -5 mm, pink to dark red or greenish-white, the outer narrowly oblong-ovate, subacute or obtuse, very concave, the inner narrowly oblong or almost narrowly obovate, rounded at apex, rarely narrowly oblong-ovate and subacute, smooth. Stamens almost included to distinctly exserted; outer 3 filaments 3 -5-4 mm, simple, the inner 3 with the basal lamina slightly or distinctly longer than the central cusp, the lateral cusps much longer than the central cusp; anthers yellow. Capsule 3-3- 5 mm. 2« = 16, 32, 40. Dry pastures, cultivated ground and roadsides. Most of Europe except the extreme north and C. & E. Russia. All except Az Cr Fa Is Rs (N, E) Sb, but doubtfully native in some territories.

A variable species widespread as a weed in cultivated land and its vicinity, with extreme variants of very different aspect. The variant with the flowers completely replaced by bulbils in the umbel has been distinguished as var. compactum (Thuill.) Cosson & Germ. ( A. compactum Thuill. ), that with bulbils and floweis as var. typicum Ascherson & Graebner ( A. vineale L. sensu stricto), and that with flowers but without bulbils as var. capsuliferum Koch ( A. rilaense Panov , A. vineale subsp. capsuliferum (Koch) Ćeschm. ), but all may occur in the same population or only one may be present. A constant variant with dark red flowers, distinguished as var. purpureum H. P. G. Koch ( A. kochii Lange ), occurs in the Baltic region. Plants from the Balkan peninsula with greenish-white flowers have been named var. virens Boiss. ( A. affine Boiss. & Heldr. , non Ledeb., A. assimile Halâcsy ). A. ebusitanum Font Quer , Butli. Inst. Catalana Hist. Nat. 24: 145 (1924), from Islas Baléares (Ibiza), apparently belongs to this complex.